Re–Valuing Constructed Knowledge

Abstract

In this chapter, two issues are discussed that impact teaching and learning in technical and technology education. The issues are bound together by a concept of constructed knowledge and its inherent value. Knowledge constructed and operationalized in non–academic contexts is not well recognized in universities as having intellectual value. Developing knowledge that may be out of context from discipline homes can be misunderstood as lacking depth, when in fact they are highly complex arrangements of interdisciplinary constructed knowledge. The second issue is about how to conceptualize an educational structure in which this complex inter-disciplinary knowledge can be better recognized across educational divisions and strata. STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) is a well-established curriculum model that gives both clear definition/delineation (and cohesive purpose) to the interdependent discipline strands of the constructed knowledge under discussion. The chapter closes with an argument for a STE(A)M model, articulating the inclusion of an additional-alternative component for the Artist, Artisan, Artificer, Alchemist, Architect, and so forth, as a model to access, create, and re-value the construction of knowledge within universities of the 21st century.